Windows Phone
Bought Nokia's phones for $7 billion. Wrote off $7.6 billion.
CAUSE OF DEATH: No apps. The developers left, and then Microsoft did.
C#, .NET, A $7.6 Billion Write-Off
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Analysts at IDC once forecast that Windows Phone would pass the iPhone by 2015. IDC said its share peaked in 2013 at 3.4%. Microsoft bought Nokia's phone business for just over $7 billion, then wrote off $7.6 billion on it, a rare case of losing more than you paid. The platform's defining problem was apps. A petition for an official Snapchat app drew 43,000 signatures. Snapchat never made one. In 2017 the New York Police Department replaced its 36,000 Windows Phones with iPhones. Microsoft declared the platform end of life on January 14, 2020. The police had the right idea.